Women's Basketball

UConn Unanimous Again Atop Poll

Connecticut moved back to being an unanimous choice as the No. 1 team, and showed there may be even more distance between itself and the rest of women's college basketball.

The Huskies, who were one vote shy of being unanimous last week, held all 45 first place votes in The Associated Press poll on Monday. UConn also received all the first-place ballots in the first poll of the regular season.

North Carolina remained No. 2 after barely hanging on to beat Oregon State in the Junkanoo Jam.

"I don't think North Carolina and UConn are really close," said Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale, who has now lost to both teams this season after Sunday's 106-78 thrashing in Connecticut. "Maybe North Carolina had a bad night and UConn had a good night, but there's a chasm between them."

California stayed at No. 3 and Stanford climbed one place to fourth. Texas A&M moved up three spots to fifth - the Aggies' highest ranking ever.

Oklahoma fell two places to sixth while Tennessee and Maryland each moved up two spots. Texas climbed back into the top 10 for the first time since Jan. 3, 2005, placing ninth. The Longhorns are 7-0 and have won by an average of nearly 37 points a game.

Baylor fell four spots to No. 10 after falling to Wisconsin 59-58 in the Paradise Jam championship.

The Bears were followed by Notre Dame and Duke. Louisville is No. 13, tumbling six spots after losing to Nevada. Auburn was 14th and Rutgers No. 15. The Scarlet Knights, who didn't play last week, visit Temple on Monday night.

Rutgers was followed by Vanderbilt, Purdue, Ohio State, and Oklahoma State.

Virginia fell four places to No. 20 after losing to Gonzaga in the WBCA Classic on Sunday. Michigan State moved up three spots to 21. The Spartans were followed by TCU, Xavier, Pittsburgh, and Arizona State. The Sun Devils dropped five places after losing to Florida in the championship game of the Junkanoo Jam II.

Pittsburgh entered the poll for the first time this season after being ranked for seven weeks in last year's poll.

Iowa State was the lone team to fall out, after getting blown out by Stanford.